[House  of  Representatives,  No.  102.] 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  May  i:>,  18*4.— Read  first 
and  second  times,  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Printing  and  ordered 
to  bo  printed. 

[By  Mr.  Dupre.]    . 


AN"    ACT 

To  provide* for  the*safe  custody,  printing,  publication  and  distribution 
of  the  law.s,  and  to  provide  for  the  appointment  of  an  additional 
clerk  in  the  Department  of  Justice. 

1  Section  1 .   The  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  do 

2  enact,  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Attorney  G  neral,  at  the 

3  close  of  each   session  of  Congress,  to   select  from   the  laws  and 

4  resolutions  such  as  may  be  of  a  public  nature,  an  1  which,  in  his 

5  judgment,  require   immediate   publication,  and  en  use  the    same 

6  to  be  inserted,  weekly,  for  four  weeks,  in   the  public  gazettes 

7  published  in  each  State,  selecting  such  gazettes  as  shall,  in  his 
S  judgment,  most  generally  distribute  the  laws  and  resolutions 
9  through  the  entire  limits  of  the  several  States. 

1  Sec.  2.  It  snail  be  the  duty  of  the  said  Attorney  General,  at 

2  the  close  of  each  session  of  Congress,  to  cause  all  the  laws,  and 

3  resolutions  having  the  force  of  laws,  and  all  treaties  entered  into 

4  by  the  Confederate  States,  to  be   published  Under  the  Superin- 


2 

5  tendent  of  Public  Printing.     The  laws  shall  be  arranged  in  the 

0  order  of  their  date ;  shall  have  marginal  not^s  to  each  section  ; 

7  shall  be  fully  indexed,  and  shall  be  published  on  the  best  paper 

8  that  can  be  secured  by  said  Superintendent,  to   the  number  of 

9     thousand  copies,  in  a  style  equal  in   execution  to  the 

10  edition  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  as  annually  published 

11  by  Little  &  Brown.     They  shall  be  bound  in  pamphlet,  in  a 

12  style  not  inferior  to  that  in  which  the  laws  published  by  Little 

13  &  Brown  are  annually;  and  one  thousand  copies  thereof  shall 

14  be  preserved  and  bound  in  calf,  in  a  solid  and  substantial  manner, 

15  .  as  often   as  the  number  of  pages  shall  be  sufficient  to  form  a 
1G  volume  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  nor  more  than  one  thousand 

17  pages  ;  and  whenever  the  volumes  are  thus  bound,  a  new  index 

18  shall  be  made,  comprising  the  contents  of  the  whole  volume. 

1  Sec.   3.  The  printing  of  the  laws,  as  required  by  the  foregoing 

2  section,  shall  be  executed  by  the  Public  Printer,  under  the  direc- 

3  tion  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Printing,  and,  until  other- 

4  wise  provided  for,  the  compensation  for  the  printing  of  the  said 

5  law's,  and  the  publication  thereof,  as  provided  for  in  the  first 

6  section,  and  the  binding  thereof  in  pamphlet  form,  as  well  as  all 

7  the  printing  ordered  by  either  House*  of  Congress,  and  all  other 

8  work  printed  for  any  of  the  Departments  of  the  Government, 

9  shall  be  such  as  the  Joint  Committee   on  Printing  of  the  two 
10  Houses  may  determine  fr>   be  *  equitable :  Promded,  That  until 


s 

1 1  otherwise  ordered,  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Printing,  under 

12  the* direction  of  the  Attorney  General,  shall  have   authority  to 

13  apportion  the  printing  for  the  several  Executive  Departments 

1 4  (the  Post  Office  Department  excepted)  among  the  different  print- 

15  in"  establishments  in  the  city  of  Richmond,  where  the  work  can 

16  be  most  eppedily  returned  without  the  formality  of  making  reg- 

17  ular  contracts. 

1  Sec.  4.  The  laws,  when  bound  in  pamphlet  form,  shall   be 

2  distributed  as  follows :  copies  to  each  member  of  Congress, 

3  twenty  copies  to  each  Secretary  of  the  Senate  and  the  Clerks  of 

4  the  House  of  Representatives,  one  copy  to.  each  committee  of  the 

5  two  Houses  of  Congress,  five  copies  to  the  President  and  Vice 

6  President,  two  hundred  copies  to  the  Department  of  State,  for  its; 

7  own  use  and  for  distribution  among  the  diplomatic  and  consular 
S  offices  of  the  Confederate  States,  six  hundred  copies  to  the  De- 
9  partment  of   the  Treasury,  fbr  its  own  use  and  for  distribution 

1 1)  among  the  revenue  officers  of  the  Government,  two  hundred  copies 

1 1  to  the  Department  of  Justice,  for  its  own  use,  and  for  distribu- 

12  tion  among  the  judges,  clerks, ^marshals,  and  attorneys  of  the 

13  Confederate  States,  fifty  copies  each  to  the  Departments  of  War 

14  and  Navy,  ajd  to  the    Postmastei    General, copies  to  the 

15  Governors  of  the  several  States,  for  the  use  of  the  States.  The 
1G  remaining  copies  shall  be  preserved  in  the  Department  of  Justice, 
17  subject  to  the  further   order  of  Gongrv-w;  and  the   remaining 


4    - 

18  copies,   now  in    the  Attorney  General's  office,  of  the   laws  of 

19  the  first,   second,  third  and  fourth  sessions  of  the  permanent 

20  Congress 

1  Sec.  5.  Any  printer  or  publisher  who  m*ay  desire  to  print  and 

2  publish  an  edition  of  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States  may  do 

3  so  at  his    expense,   and  for  his  own  benefit;  and  the  Attorney 

4  General  shall  grant  a  certificate  of  authentication  to  any  such 

5  edition  of  the  laws  as  shall  conform  to  the  standard  now  required 

6  for  the  printing   and  publication  of  the  laws.     Any  edition  of 

7  the  the  laws  so  authenticated  shall  avail   for  all  purposes  for 

8  which  the  official  publication  may  now  be  used. 

1  Sec.  6.  The  Attorney   General   is  authorized  to  appoint  an 

2  additional  clerk  in  the  Department  of  Justice  for  the  purpose  of 

3  carrying  into  effect  the  provisions  of  this  act,  to  be  called  the 

4  Law  Clerk  of  said  Department,  at  a  salary  of         ,  and  also  such 

5  other  additional  clerical  force. as  he  may  deem  necessary  to  aid 
G  the  Law  Clerk  to  prepare  promptly  the  laws  for  publication,  as 
7  provided  herein. 

1  Sec.  7.  All  laws  and  parts  of  laws  heretofore  enacted  providing 

2  for  the  safe  custody,  preservation,  printing,  publication  and  dis- 

3  tributicn  of  the  laws  are  hereby  repealed,  with  the  exception  of' 

4  the  second  section  of  the  act  entitled  "  An  act  to  provide  for  the 

5  safe  custody,  printing,  publication  and  distribution  of  the  laws, 
G  and  to  provide  for  the  appointment  of  an  additional  clerk  in  the 

7  Department  of  Justice,"  approved  the  seventeenth  of  February, 

8  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two. 


